Surfing at Rio de Janeiro’s Arpoador Beach is a way of life with its own community and specific rituals. The surfers, trainers and the children, all coming from Rio's favelas. In a city which bears it class divide on its very topography, the beach serves as an authentic melting pot where people across class and age barriers can gather. It provides the closest thing to normal life for young surfers Fabio and Naama.

Based on a 2004 article by Vince Medeiros for Surfer’s Path magazine, Rio Breaks eschews the conventional sports documentary narrative, placing surfing in relation to what it means to people in their daily life. Director Justin Mitchell makes use of digital video to intimately convey the society and world of two close childhood friends bonded by their love for surfing, their desire for escape and search for a better world.

"A poignant study of the Rio kids who see breaking waves as the only escape from a short life of crime with a favela drug gang" - Empire

Cast & Credits: Fabio da Costa / Naama Martines de Uzeda / Directed: Justin Mitchell

Awards: Hawaii International Film Festival (2009): Nominated, Documentary Feature

Technical: 2009 / 85 minutes / English, and Portuguese with English subtitles / Dolby 5:1 / 1.85 : 1 Colour / DVD PAL Multi Region / Rating: 12 / MRBDVD042

Licensed from Forward Ent. Ltd.